"Other people had beautiful babies . . . We felt like we had been
robbed in that particular category."--Kenneth Newman, who, along with
his wife, wants the state of Oregon to apologize for forcibly sterilizing them
while they were teenagers at Fairview Training Center

SALEM, OREGON--Kenneth Richard Newman is not exactly sure how
old he was when his parents left him at Fairview Training Center, but he does
remember what happened that day.

"My parents took me out to Fairview, and hopped in the car and left,"
says Newman, now 59. "I was just standing there, going, what happened? It's
like a gateway to hell opened up."

Now, Newman and his wife Shirley, who also lived at Fairview, are asking
for an apology for their incarceration, the abuse they endured, and the
trickery that was used to sterilize them. "What they told me is this is your
release papers. They said, you're gonna get out in the community...They whipped
them out and said, 'Sign here.'"

"I feel like I've been robbed, I've been cheated. I didn't ask for this
to happen," adds Newman.

"It was terrible, living in a place like that, an institution," explains
Shirley Newman. "I never did anything wrong."

SALEM, OREGON--The following excerpts are from
an exellent article I found in the Portland Oregonian on Sunday, entitled
"Facing The Shame":

"As with many June brides, Iva Gray had an elegant white gown, a
two-tier wedding cake and a lantern-jawed groom waiting for her at the church
34 years ago this weekend. Her groom waited longer than most. Iva had to be
sterilized before she was allowed to leave Fairview Hospital and Training
Center."

"The first memorial to Americans forcibly sterilized during the last
century was erected last month by the state of Virginia. Now a growing number
of Oregonians want a sign, too -- an apology from state leaders that Oregon
also erred in sterilizing at least 2,648 people."

"Nineteen years after the Legislature abolished Oregon's eugenics law,
the power and practice of eugenics continues to fascinate historians, shock
advocates and grieve those who were ordered sterilized because it was thought
they would pass their disabilities, illnesses or criminal behavior on to their
children."

"Since Virginia's governor apologized for that state's eugenics laws
this spring, Steve Weiss, board president of both the Oregon Advocacy Center
and the Mental Health Association of Oregon, has marshaled nine advocacy
groups. They plan to ask Gov. John Kitzhaber to become the second governor to
atone for the state-ordered procedures."

SALEM, OREGON -- State documents ordering the
forced sterilizations of 2,650 Oregonians -- most of whom had developmental
disabilities or mental illnesses -- during the last century are missing.

The development comes as 17 groups are pressuring Governor John
Kitzhaber to apologize for the state's eugenics law which was designed to keep
people considered "defectives" from having children. The law was part of the
American eugenics movement, which was based on the belief that society could be
improved by reducing the number of "undesirable" people, primarily people with
developmental disabilities, mental illnesses, or who had criminal pasts or were
homosexual.

A sad irony is that the records may have been shredded by Portland
Habilitation Center, one of the state's largest employers of people with
disabilities and mental illness.

"We destroyed them," said John Murphy, president of the nonprofit
Portland Habilitation Center, which had held the state contract to shred
documents. But Murphy and state officials are not sure who ordered the records
destroyed in the first place.

Now officials with the Oregon State Archives and state library want to
know who ordered the files destroyed, too. Few, if any, of the official
documents were photocopied or placed on microfiche. And destroying state
documents without proper authorization is against the law.

If the documents have been shredded, it could mean that the only records
left are in the memories of the people who were victimized and by those in
charge of the institutions where the sterilizations took place.

In related news, candidates for governor are joining the organizations
in pressuring Kitzhaber to make an official apology for the state's eugenics
practices that took place from 1917 to 1983.

A Kitzhaber advisor said that while the governor is "very interested" in
the issue, he might not make an official statement for several weeks.

When he was a state senator in 1983, Kitzhaber was on the committee that
wrote language to abolish the sterilization law. Kitzhaber was the one who made
the original motion to have the law abolished.

Thirty states and two Canadian provinces had sterilization laws on the
books during much of the 20th century. This past May, Virginia Governor Mark R.
Warner became the first governor to officially apologize for the part his state
played in the eugenics nightmare.

Velma Would Have Liked To Have Been A
GrandmotherBy Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily ExpressAugust 13,
2002

PORTLAND, OREGON--The parents of Velma Jean Hayes placed her in the
Oregon Fairview Home in 1937. The girl, labeled "very much retarded" by the
state of Oregon, was just two years old.

She moved out of the institution when she was 15 -- but not before the
state forced her to go through surgery so she could not have children. The laws
made it mandatory for everyone leaving Fairview to be sterilized so there would
be fewer people like Velma.

That's too bad, say her friends.

"Velma is always the first one to help, whether you need a ride, a loan,
a friend, anything," says one friend. "We need 10 more of Velma."

Velma is one of 2,650 Oregonians who were surgically sterilized from
1917 to 1978 because they had physical or mental disabilities or mental
illnesses. Such sterilization laws were popular during that period, based on
eugenics -- the idea that society could be improved by cutting down on the
number of children born with disabilities. Thirty states and two Canadian
provinces, along with several European countries, had such laws. Many of the
laws were still on the books until the 1980s.

Last month, disability rights advocates, along with candidates for
governor, called for Governor John Kitzhaber to submit a formal apology for the
procedures. The governor has not indicated whether or not he will
apologize.

If he does apologize, Kitzhaber would be the second governor to do so.
Earlier this year, Virginia's Governor Mark R. Warner became the first governor
to officially apologize for the part his state played in the eugenics
nightmare.

This Portland Oregonian article tells not only about the horrors of the
procedure Velma went through and the injustices she endured in the institution,
but also the sad events that happened after she left the facility:http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/red/02/0813a.htm

SALEM, OREGON- Governor John Kitzhaber announced Friday that he
will formally apologize on behalf of the state for the forced sterilizations of
more than 2,750 Oregonians during the last century.

The apology is scheduled for December 2. Several survivors have been
invited to attend the special ceremony. Kitzhaber is also expected to proclaim
December 10 as Human Rights Day across the state.

Kitzhaber would be the second U.S. governor to issue such an apology. On
May 2 of this year, Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner formally apologized for
the forced sterilizations of 8,000 Virginians, most of whom were people with
disabilities housed in the state's institutions.

A coalition of Oregon advocacy groups, including those representing
people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, have been pushing
for the apology since July of this year.

Most of those who underwent operations so that they could not have
children did so because they had no choice under the state's sterilizations
laws that were in effect from 1917 to 1983. Many had to go through the surgery
before they could be allowed to leave institutions, state hospitals, or, in
some cases, prison.

Thirty states and two Canadian provinces had similar laws on the books
during much of the 20th century. The practice was popular under the Eugenics
Movement, based on the idea that society could be improved by special breeding.
The "science" behind eugenics was disproved in the later half of the century,
but not until more than 60,000 North Americans had experienced castrations,
vasectomies, hysterectomies or tubal ligations. In addition, Adolph Hitler used
the American sterilization laws as blueprints for his Nazi plan under which
hundreds of thousands of Europeans were forcibly -- and legally --
sterilized.

As a state senator in 1983, Kitzhaber was on the committee that wrote
language to throw out Oregon's 1917 sterilization law.

"It knocked me backward," said Kenneth Newman, who was sterilized at
Fairview Training Center when he was 15 years of age, of Kitzhaber's
announcement. "I just didn't know if he was going to do it."

SALEM, OREGON--"Today, I am here to acknowledge a great wrong done
to more than 2,600 Oregonians over a period of about 60 years-forced
sterilization in accordance with a doctrine called eugenics," Governor John
Kitzhaber told a group of reporters in a prepared statement Monday.

Kitzhaber noted that most of those sterilized between 1917 and 1983 were
people with "mental disorders and disabilities" housed in state-run
institutions. Many were forced, by state law, to undergo surgery to be made
sterile before they could be allowed to leave such facilities. Others who were
sterilized included criminals, homosexuals, and teenage girls who
"misbehaved".

"The time has come to apologize for misdeeds that resulted from
widespread misconceptions, ignorance and bigotry. It's the right thing to do,
the just thing to do. The time has come to apologize for public policies that
labeled people as 'defective' simply because they were ill, and declared them
unworthy to have children of their own."

"To those who suffered, I say, The people of Oregon are sorry. Our
hearts are heavy for the pain you endured."

Kitzhaber is the second governor to formally apologize for a state's
part in the eugenics movement of the 20th century. In May of this year,
Virginia's Governor Mark R. Warner officially apologized for the forced
sterilizations of 8,300 people in his state. Thirty-one other states in the
U.S., along with two Canadian provinces, were responsible for sterilizing more
than 60,000 men and women, boys and girls. Germany's dictator Adolph Hitler
modeled his massive Nazi sterilization law in part on that of Virginia.

Eugenics, roughly based on the idea of "natural selection", was the
belief that society should be "improved" by keeping "unfit or unwanted" people
from having children. The American Eugenics movement was fully discredited
later in the century as a racist "non-science".

During his speech, Kitzhaber also noted that Oregon has "made remarkable
progress" in how it treats its citizens with disabilities.

"In the past ten years, the state has progressed to a point at which we
actually devote more resources to community care than to institutions-which
illustrates how far we've come. We have replaced the traditional old rambling
institutions with smaller facilities and a vast array of options for community
housing and employment for those who suffer mental disorders and disabilities.
In the past 25 years, we've closed the Columbia Park Hospital in The Dalles,
Eastern Oregon Hospital in Pendleton, Dammasch in Wilsonville, and Fairview in
Salem, meaning that the patients who lived in those institutions now live in
the friendlier, more therapeutic environments of our communities."

Kitzhaber also used the opportunity to proclaim December 10 as the
state's Human Rights Day, in memory of those who had been forcibly
sterilized.

"On this day, we will renew our determination to protect the rights of
all people, regardless of their color, their religious or philosophical
beliefs, their sexual preference, their economic status, their illnesses or
disabilities. We value them all, for they are our brothers and sisters."